FRESNO, Calif. - Madison Higgins scored 22 points and Roger Paul added 20, but Fresno Pacific fell to visiting BYU-Hawaii 86-76 in PacWest action on Thursday night at the Special Events Center. The Sunbirds held a slight 43-42 edge at halftime before the Seasiders proved too tough to handle in the second half.

FPU falls to 8-5 overall and 3-3 in league action with the setback, while first-place BYUH moves to 8-3 overall and 5-1 in the PacWest.

Higgins nailed six threes en route to his game-high 22, while Paul finished 16-of-18 from the free-throw line. Spencer Krannitz and Gabe Solarin added 10 points apiece.

The Seasiders used a 17-2 run near the start of the second half to take control of the game and earn their largest lead of the night of 15 points with 11:12 to play. FPU attempted to chip away at the lead the final ten minutes, but was held to 27 percent from the floor in the second half.

"BYU-Hawaii is a good basketball team, but we just got out-toughed tonight," said head coach Tim Kisner. "We knew that they were going to be tough and physical, and we didn't match their physicality throughout the game. Offensively, for us to shoot that low of a percentage is abnormal because I thought we had some good looks."

The Sunbirds finished 38 percent from the floor and 29 percent from three in the setback. The Seasiders countered at a 41 percent clip from the field.

BYUH out-rebounded FPU 50-31 and outscored the Sunbirds 38-22 in the paint. The Seasiders grabbed 21 offensive rebounds to create 24 second-chance points.

Ian Harward led BYUH with 16 points, 15 rebounds (10 offensive) and five blocks in the win. Scott Friel added 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

FPU is back in action on Saturday in Riverside as the Sunbirds take on California Baptist at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast by ESPN and will be available to viewers across the world on ESPN3.